Tuesday, March 30, 2010

"Better Off Dead" & "Horror Club"

Two more grisly ones from Horror Tales Vol. 2, No. 1. First up is Better Off Dead, which the issue’s Table of Contents introduces this way: ”At the peak of his career the physicians forced him to retire because of a bum ticker. A startling, horrifying tale of a man who was called incurable.”

The art here is Larry Woromay, whose work for Eerie Pub. always had a very distinctive, loose look. The more I see of Woromay, the more I like. His gore, (intestines, aortas, etc) always had a nice, rubbery, living look. Of course, if I am mistaken in this identification, please don’t be shy in letting me know! Download Better Off Dead!

The second story, Horror Club is by Oscar Fraga (signed). Table of Contents says: “They came in search of happiness, romance, and even marriage, only to learn the club was really the yawning pit of hell. Wan’na join?” Hmmm. The Yawning Pit of Hell – I think that was a club I used to love back in the day. Download Horror Club!

Frankly, regarding that last story - I still think Dawn looked pretty hot. Perhaps I've said too much.

Join me next time for The Witch and The Werewolf & The Spirits - both from this same issue!

Cool stuff as always Mykal! Woromay's style is very loose here, but apparently he wasn't always like that because a few of his pre-code tales I've seen show a much more precise and stylized artist... check out TWANNG! for example:

hey Mykal, can you help me out? the first Eerie Publications mag i ever laid my eyes on(but was too afraid of to even consider taking it home, not that my parents would have let me)had a back cover that featured a man skinned alive and his skin(in one piece, intact, like a suit!)left pinned to a wall with a knife(as i remember it)and this image has haunted me ever since, do you have this one? i would love to solve this mystery, it's one of my earliest memories, period!...

Karwell: The link you provided for that earlier Woromay story seemed to get fumbled in comments, so I'll put it in again HERE!

It's a cool one, and thanks for the kind words!

Prof.: I can't find the issue you mean, but I hope Mike Howlett can chime in - he's forgotten more about the slim-drenched world of Eerie Pub than I ever knew! Check out his forthcoming opus in the sidebar. If Mike can nail it, I'll hunt it down like the slavering dog it is and post it. -- Mykal

The story the Prof. is having nightmarish memories about is Corpses of the Jury, which originally appeared in Ajax's Voodoo #5 (Jan. 1953). The Pubs reprinted it twice... in WEIRD V2 #1 (12/66), and TALES OF VOODOO V2 #4 (9/69).

Prof.: None of my usual sources (including ebay) seem to have either mag available, and I don't see the original Ajax tale posted over at Karswell's. Perhaps Karsell has in posting schedule? But I will find it, oh yes I will, and get back to you. -- Mykal

I don't have that issue of Voodoo, but I have a friend who probably does so I just asked him for the scans... if he's got 'em I'll post them in April. (Mykal, drop me a line if The Howler gets you the Eerie Pub scans, maybe we can post them both at the same time.)

It's a lot of fun to read these now, for as a youth, alas, I steered clear of these publications. I would look at them in the stores, but I rarely laid down my hard earned cash for 'em...wish I had now!

Wanted to mention that I agree with Karswell and Mike H about Woromay's art, in that a lot of the comics I have featuring his art, he shows the ability to change his style much like a chameleon. Many people don't know his name, but I think this guy was one of those insung greats of the comics biz.

pocolyte: Another Woromay fan! I love that Karswell linked up to that Woromay story over at his place. I think he has others as well. I find with Woromay a consistent thread of "cartoony" for lack of a better word.

My youthful response was the opposite of yours with regard to Eerie Publications. I all but slobbered. All else seemed grey and dull by comparison. I shoved the high quality Warren mags aside to get to them. But then, I always did like splashy, loud, bold, and cheap! Unfortunately, I used them like the cheap sluts they were, tossing them aside when finished. Now I have to buy them all over again! And they still make me slobber.

Eerie Publications published horror magazines cheap and quick - with a quivering eye to the naked dollar. No fine-art pretense here; not by a goddamned far cry. Eerie slithered under the comics code by publishing their mags in an oversized, black and white format; thus they were classified as magazines not comics. The concept was to catch the adolescent male’s attention with lurid covers of gore (popped eyeballs a speciality), sex, and primary colors. What can one say but "Mission Accomplished!"

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Owner of Eerie Publishing, Myron Fass, started in the business as a comic book artist but at some point decided to make some money. He began publishing magazines on the cheapest pulp paper available, using artists and writers who, for a variety of reasons, worked cheap. His magazines had covers vibrant with severed heads, staked vampires, and dangling eyeballs; and the stories within were often "retellings" done up bloody or straight-up reprints without the slightest nod given to source material. This low-ball strategy, so clearly a fevered clutch at the adolescent dollar, was the successful bulwark of Fass’ publishing empire. Along with the horror titles celebrated here, Fass published dozens of other special-interest magazines like Brute, Buccaneer, Duke, and Official UFO (to name but a few).

The late publisher has been called a shlockmeister, a con-man, a rip-off artist, a smut peddler, and a brilliant businessman; and his publications have been called cheap, tawdry, blasphemous, low-rent, and sleazy. Mr. Fass and his magazines were all these things and so much more. After his retirement from publishing, he owned and operated a gun store in Florida. He died in 2006.

. . . Fass’ legacy lies like a cheap vampire in darkness, awaiting the call of tacky blood. Let the memories stalk the earth like fetid, sewer zombies - memories of riding my bike to Cunningham’s Drug Store, rushing inside like a sweaty neophyte to stand before the immense rack where the magazines were displayed for my pleasure. In the dank, wet halls of memory, I can still feel that jolt of prurient electricity upon seeing the newest issue of Terror Tales or Tales From the Tomb nearly glistening in bright slime among the other dull publications. Oh, Brothers, hear me! It is Thursday afternoon, and the new magazines are in! - Mykal

** A brief note about The Horrors Of It All: Many of Eerie Publication's stories came from earlier, pre-code horror comics, given a quick re-write and fresh art for a more slimy, gory second life! Let's think of them as "homages!" THOIA specializes in these original, pre-code horror stories. Go and look, damn you!!

The Bloody Pulp uses Mike Howlett's book, The Weird World of Eerie Publications, as a primary source of information for all posts.